before pursuits more
worthy of manly dignity. If Art in all forms has of late been quiet,
it has been because it has drawn back like the tiger in order to make
the greater bound.

One of the causes why some are laying aside all old spiritualism,
romance and sentiment, is that their realisation takes up too much
time, and Science, which is the soul of business, seeks in all things
brevity and directness. It is probable that the phrase, "but to the
point," has been oftener repeated during the past few years, than it
ever was before, since Time begun, of which directness I shall have
more to say anon.

And this is the end to which these remarks on the _fin-de-siecle_ were
written, to lay stress upon the fact that with the year Nineteen
Hundred we shall begin a century during which civilized mankind will
attain its majority and become _manly_, doing that which is right
as a man should, _because it is right_ and for no other reason, and
shunning wrong for as good cause. For while man is a child he behaves
well, or misbehaves, for _reasons_ such as the fear of punishment or
hope of reward, but in a manly code no reasons are necessary but only
a persuasion or conviction that anything is right or wrong, and a
principle which is as the earth unto a seed.

For as the world is going on, or getting to be, it is very evident
that as it is popularly said, "he who will tell a lie will generally
not hesitate to commit perjury," so he who cannot be really honest,
_per se_, without being sustained by principle based only on tradition
and the opinion of others, is a poor creature, whose morality or
honesty is in fact merely theatrical, or acted, to satisfy certain
conditions or exigencies from which he were better freed.

This spirit of scientific directness, and economy of thought and
trouble by making the principle of integrity the basis of all forms,
and cutting all ethical theories down to "be good because you
_ought_," is rapidly astonishing us with another marvellous fact which
it illustrates, namely, that as in this axiom--as in man himself--
there are latent undiscovered powers, so in a thousand other
sayings, or things known to us all, used by us all, and regarded as
common-place, there are astounding novelties and capacities as yet
undreamed of. For, as very few moralists ever understood in full what
is meant by the very much worn or hackneyed saying, "we ought to do
what is right," so the world at large little suspects tha